Shownotes
We get into a wide array of topics, starting with a nod to Valentine's Day and the historical significance of this day.
As our conversation unfolds, we tackle subjects ranging from the implications of Jim Tressel's potential political role in Ohio, insights into the Ukraine-Russia conflict, to the examination of government auditing and finance.
We provide our takes on current events, exploring the intricacies of politics, national security, and the role of transparency in governance. Expect engaging dialogue on topics such as the administrative state, the constitutional power of the presidency, and the accountability measures in place (or lack thereof) for government spending.
Whether it's the explosive revelations about JobsOhio or the federal audit of government agencies, nothing is off the table. This is a thought-provoking journey in this week's episode as we break down what matters, with a common-sense approach, right from the heart of Ohio.
00:00 "Business Consultation and Accounting Help"
06:04 Jim Tressel Becomes Ohio Lt. Governor
15:06 Ukraine Aid Audit Concerns
18:03 Unexpected High Death Rates Analysis
25:40 Social Media Tensions Rise Again
31:04 "Swift Action Precedent Set by Trump"
35:48 Treasury Check Coding Explained
38:14 Media's Shift Against Government Transparency
45:07 JobsOhio's Controversial Setup
48:28 Audit Conditions for Board Extension
57:37 Understanding Presidential Power Limits
59:54 Roberts Limits Supreme Court Power
01:03:48 Alex Soros Claims Global Influence
Recorded at the 511 Studios, in the Brewery District in downtown Columbus, OH.
info@commonsenseohioshow.com
Stephen Palmer is the Managing Partner for the law firm, Palmer Legal Defense. He has specialized almost exclusively in criminal defense for over 26 years. Steve is also a partner in Criminal Defense Consultants, a firm focused wholly on helping criminal defense attorneys design winning strategies for their clients.
Norm Murdock is an automobile racing driver and owner of a high-performance and restoration car parts company. He earned undergraduate degrees in literature and journalism and graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1985. He worked in the IT industry for two years before launching a career in government relations in Columbus, Ohio. Norm has assisted clients in the Transportation, Education, Healthcare, and Public Infrastructure sectors.
Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy®, is an award-winning podcast consultant and small business owner for nearly 10 years, leaving a long career in radio. He is passionate about helping small businesses tell their story through podcasts, and he believes podcasting is a great opportunity for different voices to speak and be heard.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
Transcripts
Alright. Here we are live. Commonsenseohioshow.com. That's the website. You can check us out at commonsenseohioshow.com. We are bringing you your weekly dose of Common Sense right here from Studio C at channel five one one. We are back. Probably should announce our our remergent resurgent.
Steve Palmer [:Mhmm. Our sponsor, Harper Plus Accounting, Glenn Harper over at Harper Plus Accounting, is sponsoring our show. A great local business, and he does work nationally too. I know he lectures nationally on the circuit, helps lots of other accounts, does a lot of consulting. And what I've noticed about Glenn, generally speaking, and and, Brett, you we we use him here at Studio, and, of course, you use him. Yep. It's not just getting your beans counted. It's not just getting the tax return filed.
Steve Palmer [:It's not just transactional. You know, some people need that. And the good news is they've got that too. They've got the ability to just get your tax return done. But, you know, if you're like us, any any entrepreneur gets this, and it's it's not that we're fancy. It's not that we're important. It's not that we're smart. But when you're an entrepreneur and you have your own businesses, you tend to stack up things like LLCs.
Steve Palmer [:And we create them faster than they can keep up with them. And there's problems with that. And trust me, I know there's problems with that because I've, you know, I I create an LLC and say we're gonna rock and roll, and then maybe you just rock and you never roll. So Glenn can help you with that if you if you're maybe behind on something. He can help you consult with when it's time to hire somebody, when it's time to fire somebody, when it's time to change your payroll company, when it's time to pay your taxes, when it's time to get ahead of your tax for next year, maybe get behind on them this year. Whatever it is, he can do it. And how do I know that? Because I think since, like, 1999, he's been a good friend, a professional friend, a professional colleague, and my accountant could be yours, Harper plus accounting. So let's get right to it.
Steve Palmer [:Common Sense Ohio. We always start the show with this segment, what this day in history. And, of course, this day in history is Valentine's Day, so how dare we not talk about Valentine's Day? True. True. We have, Saint Valentine's Day, the feast of Saint Valentine, a priest and a physician who was martyred on or about February in Rome. Or no. No. No.
Steve Palmer [:That would be AD. Right? CE is what it says. So I I always yeah. Whatever. AD. In the year of our lord February in Rome, the tradition of exchanging greetings and of love on Valentine's Day is based on the legend that Valentine had signed a letter to his jailer's daughter with whom he had fallen in love from your Valentine. So now, Norm, when you were sending Valentine's to all your love interests out there
Norm Murdock [:My harem.
Steve Palmer [:You understand the harem. That's perfect. You understand. May may same part of the world, perhaps. That's right. But, anyway, the, now you know why you were doing it. And, of course, Hallmark has adopted this as its own holiday. I tend not to celebrate Valentine's Day because I find it absurdly stupid.
Steve Palmer [:Not that I don't love people. I love everybody. Not as well as Norm or not as much as Norm does, but I do love everybody.
Norm Murdock [:So so are you saying the Hallmark Corporation was, contemporaneously, established back there when Saint Valentine's? Because it seems like a corporate thing, like a trap for
Steve Palmer [:men. Right. It's a trap.
Norm Murdock [:Like like, you know, we have Sweetest Day,
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. Our anniversary and our main secretaries.
Brett Johnson [:Administrative assistant day.
Steve Palmer [:So Cinco de Mayo There's
Norm Murdock [:several of dudes day.
Steve Palmer [:Cinco de Mayo is sort of like this. I was born on May 5. K? Alright. May 5. Cinco de Mayo. Wow. Now here's what's interesting. Until the early nineties Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:I never heard a peep about Cinco de Mayo. I never knew anything about it. And then one day, I would we went out for my birthday, and we happened to go to Don Pablo's restaurant over there at Lenox, but
Norm Murdock [:we're
Steve Palmer [:still there at Lenox at
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:Up on campus area or near campus. And, there was this big outdoor shenanigans going on. You know? They had the they had tents up, and it was it was a gorgeous day, and they were serving margaritas and Dos Equis beer. And I I'm like, what in the f is Cinco de Mayo Right. Other than my birthday? This is all for me?
Norm Murdock [:And then and then did you find out?
Steve Palmer [:I they yeah. They gave me the history of it, and I thought, well
Norm Murdock [:Which is, like, completely nothing to do with America and Mexico.
Brett Johnson [:Well, and if you follow the path, it had to be the alcohol distributors.
Steve Palmer [:That's right. It started. It was actually functionally. Right.
Norm Murdock [:We'll call
Steve Palmer [:it the Anheuser holiday.
Norm Murdock [:Right. Right.
Steve Palmer [:At any rate,
Brett Johnson [:this is not
Steve Palmer [:the only
Norm Murdock [:Well, just question for you, because I don't know how Saint Valentine's was martyred. Did they shoot him with arrows? Is that how the Cupid thing came along? Or
Steve Palmer [:I my my research did not go so deep at all. So do your own research, folks. I I I I have limitations on my historical knowledge.
Norm Murdock [:An email tell us. I will
Steve Palmer [:say this, though. There is one other thing that I started to go down, or I was gonna showcase, but it is Valentine's Day, so I do not do it. And that is, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawad Karam registered YouTube, a website for sharing videos on this day in 02/2005.
Brett Johnson [:Wow. Only twenty years ago.
Steve Palmer [:It would become hugely popular with more than 1,000,000,000 unique users visiting the site every month. So we are on YouTube, so check
Norm Murdock [:it out. Bought it. Right? I think Google did not start it. They they acquired it. Right? Yep.
Brett Johnson [:So,
Steve Palmer [:anyway, that is, common or that's our this day in history. Norm, we might as well hit the news. I know you've been chomping at the bit
Norm Murdock [:too. There's there's just an incredible amount of stuff going on. So, today here in Ohio I mean, this is almost national news. So it it's sort of is super hot, that Jim Tressel, the the, the head of, Youngstown State University for eleven years, and before that, was Ohio State's football coach for ten years, national championship, beat Michigan almost every year, if not every year. I mean, a lot. And, you know, left, when there was that tattoo for, I don't know, game pants or game balls or whatever it was.
Brett Johnson [:Tattooed gate?
Norm Murdock [:Tattoo gate.
Steve Palmer [:They were his players, Terrell Pryor and others, Posey Devere Posey, I believe, is one of them. They were trading tattoos for memorabilia.
Norm Murdock [:Or the other way around, but same. Yeah. Trading their memorabilia for tattoos and whatever. And he didn't report it or he didn't
Steve Palmer [:Well, there was some backdoor stuff going on. I mean, it it it was, it was stupidly avoidable.
Norm Murdock [:It was avoidable. But, anyway, before getting into why they canned Jim Tressel at Ohio State, he built his, you know, rep back up, if he needed to. I'm not sure he needed to. I was a big fan, but let's not get into that. But at any rate, he is being sworn in today as Ohio's lieutenant governor to replace John Huston who replaced JD Vance in the US senate. So a lot of people are saying, Jim Trussell, how could he you know, like, why can you pick a football coach to be a public official? And I always say, well, University of Cincinnati's old football coach is now a US senator, Tommy Tuberville. Yeah. So so And you know what? That crazy.
Steve Palmer [:Anybody who He's got
Brett Johnson [:the pedigree to do this. Outside of being a football coach, he's run a university, basically.
Steve Palmer [:That's a that's a huge job.
Brett Johnson [:That's a huge job.
Norm Murdock [:For eleven years.
Steve Palmer [:And Right. And any and and, look, he came up the ranks through lots with lots of Ohio coaches. Yeah. And, you know, this is I I don't I don't know if you ever coached directly under Woody, but if it's sort of that tutelage Yeah. Good question. You know? But, anyway,
Brett Johnson [:I I
Steve Palmer [:remember in in, college taking, sports management and and leadership classes and all. You know, as a football player, you take everybody says the easy classes, but you take those classes and they teach you leadership. They teach you values. They teach you, all sorts of, I think, fundamental skills and maybe a viewpoint on the world that helps you become a coach. Yeah. And those things translate nicely into the real world. And it's it's no secret why you have very successful football coaches at the top. Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:You know, there's no secret about it. Yeah. Nick Saban, again, came through the higher ranks.
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:Urban Meyer, again, came through the higher ranks. Incredible. Yeah. Right. But, you know, there there's a reason
Norm Murdock [:Bo Schembechler.
Steve Palmer [:And Bo came through the higher ranks. I mean You know, there's a and there's a reason why these people become very successful football coaches because they're leaders. Yeah. They're organizers. They understand people. They understand the how to make people work together Yeah. In a very coordinated way, and successfully win. And you can translate that skill set anywhere.
Steve Palmer [:And and I think it's a little bit of a, discredit to anybody who's done that job. Not I. I have never done that job. But it would be a discredit to say that they don't have a skill set that would transfer into the real world, and and that's what's happened here. And and anybody who's been around Trestle, even if you've seen him interviewed, he is a statesman of a man. I mean, he is a he is just a his his compass is always true, notwithstanding Tattoo Gate. But his compass is always true, not perfect.
Norm Murdock [:But Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:True. And and, I think and when I saw it, I was I probably felt like everybody else, like, Tressel?
Brett Johnson [:Well, his name just was never on a list. Right. I mean Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:But then I thought about it. I was like, makes perfect sense.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. And I
Brett Johnson [:He did a great interview on Spectrum one
Steve Palmer [:Oh.
Brett Johnson [:About, oh, maybe eight minutes long or something like that. Oh. And he was asked asked if he was, is it if this is the jumping point off to run for governor. He says, I haven't even done this job yet. I don't even know if I can yet. I mean
Steve Palmer [:That's a classic Trestle statement. And anybody understands Trestle.
Brett Johnson [:And I like that. It's like, okay. You're right. You you got two years to do what wine's asking of you.
Steve Palmer [:Figure it out.
Brett Johnson [:Figure it out. And if you can't, you can't. If you can, you can't. I mean, and that really at that point in time is not to say my hat's in the ring. That really is not the time. No. And and and and for the reporter's sake, I didn't see that as a gotcha moment. It wasn't.
Brett Johnson [:I mean, that's I would ask too. Yeah. Are you interested in doing it? Of course.
Steve Palmer [:Right. Of
Brett Johnson [:course. It's only two year it's two years away. Actually, he's gonna make up his mind in a year. Right. Honestly.
Steve Palmer [:I mean, we might have a very interesting primary.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. And and and
Brett Johnson [:I can
Steve Palmer [:has thrown his hat in the ring. Yeah. Vivek, apparently. I I don't know if that's happening.
Norm Murdock [:He hasn't formally announced
Brett Johnson [:Certainly discussed it. He's in it. Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:Certainly discussed it. So I yeah. I don't know. We'll see how it goes, but good luck to Jim Tressell as he, as he handles. I mean, look. I don't know what everybody else's experience has been being a gov what is DeWine's background? Right. Yeah. I mean, he just did he go to governor school? Right? You know?
Norm Murdock [:Well, he was a state legislator, and then he was a US senator.
Steve Palmer [:Alright. So he's got a political
Norm Murdock [:And then he was a lieutenant governor under Kasich and, you know, so, like, he's done every job in Ohio. He's wore
Brett Johnson [:out a lot of chairs in there then.
Norm Murdock [:Yes. He's I think, you know, the other dynamic that could happen, fellas, is, whoever's running for governor could ask Jim Tressel to extend, as lieutenant governor and be on their ticket.
Steve Palmer [:Who's gonna get the endorsement from Tressel?
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. Like like Yost or or Vivek could say, hey, Jim. Would you run as my lieutenant governor? I could see that happening too.
Brett Johnson [:Maybe. I mean, get though, DeWine and here buds. Yeah. And I don't know whether he has any relationship with those two.
Steve Palmer [:I don't know.
Brett Johnson [:We'll see. Or his his thoughts are in line with a Yoast or a that guy. I
Norm Murdock [:don't know. The other thing That's
Steve Palmer [:a good point.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. The the other thing is, DeWine's not super popular with his own Republican, general assembly, and they had to approve, whoever he picked. Mhmm. And this was like a wiffle ball.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Right? Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:He could get this through without any controversy. No fight.
Steve Palmer [:No I love to whine like you love everybody. No. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:Don't rot any further than that. I love to whine, but I can't stand his decision. So Yeah. Right. Yeah. So Yeah. Yeah. So, like, you know, DeWine actually had some impeachment documents filed against him by Republicans during COVID.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:That's how popular he was. Yeah. So some other things that are happening. This is amazing, and this takes us into national and international. But, Trump and Putin had a ninety minute phone call, which is staggering. And, of course, Zelensky came over and visited Trump, I don't know, a couple weeks ago. So there seems to be, like, like, they're worn out. I think over a million soldiers and citizens have died now in that Ukraine Russian war.
Norm Murdock [:And, Russia alone has lost at least half a million soldiers. And I think, Putin Putin is trying to take, Kharkiv, back, like, for the third time. I mean, this is it's almost like World War two. Mhmm. It's almost like it's this artillery, close air support tanks, kind of war. And these guys are just grinding up young men, like hamburger. And I think they're both I think both sides are totally worn out. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:And, Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:They they they need somebody to pave the path and say, come on, guys.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. We we gotta end this
Brett Johnson [:thing. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. I don't think either side will be happy. Russia will get some land out of this deal that
Steve Palmer [:But it's the land they already had. It's Or their land they took in 2014 or
Norm Murdock [:'20 Crimea. Like, they're gonna get to keep that probably.
Steve Palmer [:And was that 2014? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. They'll get to keep that.
Norm Murdock [:Obama was in.
Steve Palmer [:Look. It's it's not gonna be popular either way, but it'll be done. And and nobody's getting anywhere. It's a stalemate. You know? It's like Yeah. I remember I got I've been only a handful of fights in my entire life. But I remember one when I was old enough where I was the other guy that we had got gotten this scrape together, we, we were old enough, adult enough, where we could've done some damage to each other.
Norm Murdock [:Is this a corn pop story? No. It's it's very close to a Joe Biden corn.
Steve Palmer [:No. It's not a corn pop story. But I remember getting to the point
Norm Murdock [:where That was mean.
Steve Palmer [:I'm sorry. I'm get we got to a point where it was sort of a stalemate, and I think we were both happy that the the crowd broke it up.
Norm Murdock [:Right. You know,
Steve Palmer [:it's like because
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:We were exhausted.
Norm Murdock [:You can't even lift your arms up. We we we we we
Steve Palmer [:we we
Brett Johnson [:bored the audience, you're saying?
Norm Murdock [:Well, I mean,
Steve Palmer [:it was like it was done.
Norm Murdock [:They were just like, oh,
Steve Palmer [:okay. Two fulls.
Brett Johnson [:You got a couple licks. It was yeah. I gotcha. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:I think the only people, like, this this for the whole world was a loser. Like, nope. This whole Ukraine, Russia thing. I think the only people that won were, armaments manufacturers. Pretty much. Like, they got to sell a lot of stuff.
Steve Palmer [:You're speaking my language now because those who are supporting the war here in The United States, I get it. It it almost became this this ideological thing. If you're on the left, you supported the war against this. If you're on the right, you didn't it was like, it was so stupid.
Norm Murdock [:It was stupid.
Steve Palmer [:But I always wanna follow the money Yeah. And see where it's going. Yeah. Because those who are supporting the war probably had an interest in those who were selling goods to support the war. Yeah. And I, like, I do I know that for sure? No. But I just I can always smell the corruption or or smell not the corruption, the bias.
Norm Murdock [:And if
Brett Johnson [:nothing else, somebody did benefit from this war. Yeah. You know because some they had to buy the stuff somewhere.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. See, as a lawyer, Norm, doing criminal defense work, I get to get people on the witness stand, and you just develop this nose. It's like a bloodhound
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:For what motivates people to say certain things. Yeah. And it's not even that they're lying, but these people tend to shade things in a certain way. And then I always I always try to find the motive, try to find the interest. What is really making this person tick? Why are they saying what they're saying? Yeah. Or why are they shading it in the color that they're shading it? And, you know, in this situation, you just gotta think there's money involved.
Norm Murdock [:There has been some really crazy stuff that, you know, I don't think now anybody can definitively say because there hasn't been an audit. JD Vance has always as a senator wanted an audit on, you know, our loans to Ukraine and where the money was going. And two things came out this past week. One is from Tucker Carlson that just completely fries my mind. And, again, don't know if it's true, but he did this big splashy show where he claimed a a roughly half of the armaments that we have provided to Ukraine, they have resold in order to get money. Like like, you know
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. To whom, I wonder.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. To whom? So that's one allegation. Don't know if it's true. The other allegation that's come out is Zelensky himself. So the the total amount of USAID under Biden, you know, that figure roughly is out there. I I think it's like a hundred billion dollars or whatever it is. And Zelensky is saying, well, you guys may have that figure, but our government has only received roughly half. Again, this this same crazy number.
Norm Murdock [:Our our government has only gotten about half of what you're claiming you gave us. So I don't know, guys.
Steve Palmer [:Somewhere in the middle.
Brett Johnson [:There's Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:There's something discrepancy there.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. There's something Maybe
Steve Palmer [:we need Doge to figure it out. Nice little transition. You see what I did? Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:Go for it, man.
Steve Palmer [:No. It's all I'm sure it's if it's not on your list, it would shock me.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. No. It's on the it's on my wonderful list at the very end. But, yeah. So, the other big thing, you know, in my opinion, like, is epic because we've talked so much about Fauci and the vaccines and about, you know, corp whatever you call processed foods. We we've talked a lot about all of this stuff that we have been spoon fed by previous surgeon generals, departments of health, and who CDC, NIH, and, they approved the RFK yesterday as
Steve Palmer [:the new approved. Tulsi Gabbard Trump got his cabinet, basically, is what it what we're all about. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:But I think there's gonna be some serious releases of, these vaccine, like like the VAERS thing where, there has been where there were reactions.
Steve Palmer [:Adverse so there's a there's actually there was supposed to be a database. I questioned how well the data was collected and kept during COVID. But there's supposed to be a database for those who are harmed by vaccines. It's not just COVID vaccine. Just vaccines.
Norm Murdock [:And it's not just VAERS. Apparently, so my brother's an internist as you guys know. And, my doctor brother, said that there are other reporting systems besides VAERS that is, like, one of the main ones. But he said, like, all of that data is, basically locked away. And I think RFK is absolutely going to
Steve Palmer [:What what blew my mind on I agree.
Norm Murdock [:I and I think He's gonna put it
Steve Palmer [:out there. Blow the top out of it. What my mind was not blown. That's not the right word because I it was everything I suspected. But I listened to an interview in the midst of COVID or maybe later in COVID, but it was an insurance actuary. Because, look, money like you said, money tends to make the world tick. And the insurance companies, study this crap. And, he was talking about a and he had I don't know if he had predicted it or if we were in the midst of, like, the curve was rising, an incredibly high death rate, non COVID death rate, of people between the ages, like, 25 and 40.
Steve Palmer [:And he was saying it was like a Vietnam type of numbers of dead, and they were attributing it to vaccine reactions among other things.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:And they were they had adjusted rates and premiums and everything else to deal with it. So I can't say it's true just because he said it. I I could probably dig up who, whoever, that interview. But it was one of the Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:I'm sure it
Steve Palmer [:was a conservative podcaster. But it was, really interesting stuff. And I think we're gonna find that if it's truly studied, there's a lot of cardiopulmonary clotting, completely surprised deaths that are are unexplained is the word I'm looking for, unexplained deaths. And,
Norm Murdock [:Like that like that Buffalo Bills player that just collapsed in the middle of the Bengals game.
Steve Palmer [:And, you know Remember that? They do. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:They stopped the game. They never played it. Yep. You know, to they're like, it wasn't rescheduled.
Steve Palmer [:Stuff like that has happened throughout history, or even in modern times. Sure. Just I I I know somebody very personally and very near and dear to me just had a heart attack in the shower one day. He was a healthy young man. You know, just like, Yeah. You know, it's okay.
Norm Murdock [:And if they're seeing an uptick of that, that's otherwise unexplained.
Steve Palmer [:Right. I I I get One doesn't equal the other.
Norm Murdock [:That's right.
Steve Palmer [:But you can at least put them on a graph and correlate
Norm Murdock [:That's right.
Steve Palmer [:And try to draw conclusions that are permissibly or scientifically or intellectually permissible.
Norm Murdock [:Right. Right. Yeah. It's not proof. Correlation is not proof, but it can be a hell of a clue.
Steve Palmer [:It certainly points you in a direction where you should look.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. Right.
Steve Palmer [:Where
Brett Johnson [:you should look. Oh, and I have I have as I've always stated too, as long as we don't mess with the numbers, mess with the information that we don't learn from this.
Norm Murdock [:That's
Brett Johnson [:right. We have to learn from this.
Steve Palmer [:We have messed
Brett Johnson [:with it. Going to happen again historically. Yes. We may not see it in our lifetimes. Knock on wood. Let's hope we don't. But if we don't learn from this, then our future generations are just gonna go through this
Norm Murdock [:pain crap.
Brett Johnson [:And maybe
Steve Palmer [:even worse. Worries me a little bit about RFK. Not worry is not the right word. But I I also listened to an interview this week or maybe last week, and I don't know when the interview came out. It was Jordan Peterson was interviewing Simone Gold, who was, a physician. She's an attorney, and she was one of those people, if you recall, was out front banging the table about this ivermectin was a good therapeutic for COVID. She was one of those doctors, and she created a whole organization and and blew up.
Brett Johnson [:And she
Steve Palmer [:ended up going to jail because she was at January 6. Wow. It really sort of an interesting story. But she was talking about how do we fix it, and we have RFK in there, and we're gonna do these things. See, I here's where here's where the lawyer in me has to emerge like a tiger here because we there have been rains and restrictions on lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers
Brett Johnson [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:Against pharmaceutical manufacturers. So if it gets FDA approval, it's all sudden good.
Norm Murdock [:They got an immunity law as part of
Steve Palmer [:That's right.
Norm Murdock [:Operation what was at warp speed.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, at the time, maybe you could argue for that. But look, if I don't think the government can fix it. I I think the market can. And if you unleash lawyers on companies Mhmm. You're gonna get a lot of blowback. I know I'm gonna get blowback for this, but this is these are market forces at work.
Steve Palmer [:That's
Brett Johnson [:right. Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:And I'm not saying regulation is completely unnecessary and needed, and and it it is needed. But not permitting recourse against people who are promoting a product and then selling the crap out of it, getting government mandates that you have to have it. And then if it's damaging or hurts people, sorry. There's nothing you can do about it. I tell you what, you bankrupt you bankrupted a company for that one time with a lawsuit, it won't happen again.
Norm Murdock [:That's right.
Steve Palmer [:Or you're gonna at least be in a in this area, enormous as you're in cars, where car manufacturers go through this law and economics all the time.
Norm Murdock [:All the time.
Steve Palmer [:You know, everybody remembers the famous Pinto case. Right. So they remember there's a couple of those in history
Norm Murdock [:That's right.
Steve Palmer [:Where they didn't fix stuff, and they got smacked for it. Yeah. And it prevents them from releasing unsafe products. It does or prevents not the river. It deters them.
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:It still can happen.
Norm Murdock [:It sets up that argument, and then we can discuss whether or not, you know, it was true or not. Right. And that's a matter of
Steve Palmer [:proof. If we could sue now you know who, like, you know who's getting and the food industry is gonna be the same. And and you know who's gonna get who's getting involved in that? Tobacco companies.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:So Yeah. You know, if it and this is what happens. You let the lawyers start digging into tobacco company records, you're gonna find stuff.
Norm Murdock [:And you get rid of, like, take it to to tech. You get rid of section two thirty. Right? And and and people start suing for, you know, being, you know, basically for, what is it when you say something untrue about something? Libel somebody. Yeah. Libel right. You know, like, people say crazy stuff on the Internet now about other people, and, basically, two thirty is like the big shield. And they go, well, we don't care. You know? Or or more to the point, these AI chat boxes, that coach kids on how to commit suicide.
Norm Murdock [:And then the guy at, Twitter or the wherever that's being hosted go, well, I don't care. Like, it like, you know, I'm sorry your kid's dead, but you can't sue me. And it's like, really? You have this you have this chat box that's, like, coaching kids on so a kid types in, how do I kill myself? And then he gets a reply from your robot.
Steve Palmer [:Incidentally, lawyer talk, my show. Lawyertalkpodcast.com. Check it out. But, I did an episode with a, civil, personal injury lawyer on that very thing. So check it out if you're curious about how a real lawyer Right. Not I. A real personal injury lawyer or injury lawyer would break that down. We did it.
Norm Murdock [:And and would solve issues like that. Then then you would have these big tech companies making damn sure that that harmful things like that aren't on their platforms.
Steve Palmer [:Look. It's we all learned this as a kid. When you went to grandma's house and you touched the stove and she, you know, she can I touch the stove? No. And then you do it anyway. Grandma says, look. I told you not to touch the damn stove, but you did it anyway. You
Norm Murdock [:did it.
Steve Palmer [:You're not gonna do it again because you burnt your hand.
Norm Murdock [:Right. And to Brett's point, you know, there was a protocol for approving, vaccines and drugs, and, they dispensed with
Brett Johnson [:that. Yes. It did. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:And and
Steve Palmer [:and Even that protocol was I wouldn't I I don't know all the nuances of it. But even that sort of insulated people or insulated manufacturers, but they just got rid of it altogether.
Norm Murdock [:They got rid of it altogether. And we were the beta test fleet, you know, or, you know, we were the animal farm that they tested the vaccine on. And, you know, like, that was reckless. And I think that's why under Warp Speed, they gave him immunity. But, here we are with possibly all this cardiological damage, and, there's nobody who's gonna pay for it. Right.
Steve Palmer [:Right. You
Norm Murdock [:know? Yep. So anyway. Yep. You know, the other thing, guys now this is not really a news thing, but it's it's we're having something happen socially. And I don't I don't really, I'm not happy about it. A lot of lot of real conservative people are really getting their jollies right now about how freaked out the left is. And the left is also you know, there's people there. They're having a great time, you know, calling Trump, Hitler, Stalin.
Norm Murdock [:Of course, those two were leftist themselves. But, you know, like like, the I feel like we're you know, we had a a few a couple months after the election, like Steve pointed out during that law, where it kinda felt like, hey, you know, the country feels a little bit less tense, a little lit a little bit less wound up. And I feel like right now, man, the stuff I'm seeing on social media where lefties are saying stuff like gay marriages are under attack by somebody and that gay people are gonna die and there's death squads.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:And I'm like, what has Trump, for example, ever said about gay people or gay marriages? Nothing. Nothing. He's never said a thing about it. No.
Steve Palmer [:In fact, on there's an old clip that keeps going around the social medias on, what was the show he had? The Fire People. Apprentice. Okay. And there was a gay I forget who it was, but there was a gay contestant. And he was like, yeah, man. That's why we have menus at restaurants. Some people like this, some people like that. What do I care? And, you know, I think that's probably how Trump feels about it.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:And I'm seeing crazy stuff on Facebook again. It's like we're leading right up to the election, and Rachel Maddow is like now she's five days a week instead of just Mondays. And it's like the entire I
Steve Palmer [:don't think it's working. What's going on here? I think it it just looks stupid. So here's a here's a perfect example.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:Take Doge. And you have Elon Musk. And Elon's an odd quirky dude anyway. So, yeah, I get it. He's he's in the White House the other day with his son and his son's talking.
Brett Johnson [:He's just a weird dude. That that and to interrupt you, I'll let you go back to that. That little scenario is gonna be analyzed over and over and over again. And and I have my point of view on it too because I it it it's so interesting It's just that whole scenario. But, anyway, go ahead.
Steve Palmer [:He's just weird.
Norm Murdock [:His whole video is Is
Brett Johnson [:there enough?
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. So instead of it instead of they sort of the the the left is shifting the narrative away from the question about whether there is waste, whether there's fraud, whether there's, what waste whatever it is. They're shifting the the narrative from that to saying, well, look at Elon. He's got this conflict, or he's got people under him that aren't safe. They're getting our data. Whatever it is, they're, like, shifting the narrative.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:And this is this this reminds me a little bit about, like, voter ID stuff. Yeah. They shift the narrative to say, oh, you know, it's it's racist to have voter ID. And I say, well, let's give everybody an ID then. And then you get crickets. Yeah. Well, fine. Just put some restrictions on the date.
Steve Palmer [:You know, you have them. We'll make them sign forms. Make them vet his people. Who gives a crap? Then and then they'll get right back to business. And here I fault Elon and Trump a little bit for this. Just get ahead of this problem and say, alright. Guess what now? We have all these, safety mechanisms in place. Everybody it's gonna work in Doge, is now gonna get screened, and they're gonna have background checks.
Steve Palmer [:And we're gonna be able to we're gonna be able to satiate all of you, at least to the point we satiate all you with the very government workers that were that they're investigating. Yeah. They've got the same protection here. So now can now now what are you gonna bitch about? Right. So I it but then how can you complain about finding, waste and fraud? You know, how can you complain about it?
Brett Johnson [:It it it only to your point, it feels as though it had to move fast, and it almost is that they have to explain what they're doing after they do it versus, okay, this is what's going to happen.
Steve Palmer [:That's,
Brett Johnson [:And I because he from what I read, Elon has a hundred and thirty days as a special government employee.
Steve Palmer [:Oh, really? Okay. I think
Brett Johnson [:there's a limitation. He can't be on forever.
Norm Murdock [:Dude.
Brett Johnson [:And he's not being paid.
Norm Murdock [:Let me stop you
Brett Johnson [:there. I I think.
Norm Murdock [:But He's not a government employee.
Brett Johnson [:He's an SGE. He is under SGE.
Norm Murdock [:He's not a government official in any way.
Brett Johnson [:No. No. No. But he's he's but it's another category, though. Right?
Steve Palmer [:No? Okay.
Brett Johnson [:No. Oh, I thought he was.
Steve Palmer [:He's not an employee, but he's working on Okay. He's a he's a he's an agent.
Brett Johnson [:Classification then.
Steve Palmer [:He's an agent. He's working on behalf of the president. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:He is not whether
Steve Palmer [:he's being paid or not is is a different story.
Norm Murdock [:Nothing Doge is doing is being implemented by Elon Musk. It's being implemented by Trump.
Brett Johnson [:Right. Right. So He's he's he's giving him ideas on what should be done. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:And I'm seeing all these memes on social media. Who elected Elon?
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. Co president.
Brett Johnson [:He's just an adviser. Right. Exactly.
Norm Murdock [:That's all he is.
Steve Palmer [:So we were talking about this yesterday. Yeah. We were talking Brett and I were talking a little bit yesterday.
Norm Murdock [:You wanna blame somebody, blame Trump. Right.
Steve Palmer [:Right. Well and Brett and I were talking about this. There's these little tropes that the mass or the mainstream media keeps coming up with. And for two years or the last two years of the election cycle, it was threat to democracy, directed and you could every night, you would just turn on news, threat to democracy, threat
Brett Johnson [:to democracy, threat to democracy, threat
Steve Palmer [:to democracy, and now you've got co president, co president, to try who who elected this guy, co president? And they all use the same terminology, and then we'll get to the constitutional crisis, which is coming next.
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:We'll talk about that in the justice for all. But they Right. But none of this actually addresses what Elon and Doge are doing.
Norm Murdock [:That's correct.
Steve Palmer [:You know, they're not digging into it because I think and I and I think this falls short. I think it falls woefully short, media of convincing the American public that it's bad.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:I I think it does. I mean, I think people are looking at, like, alright. We've seen this play before. Mhmm. Attack the man, attack this, attack that, calm a racist, do whatever whatever it is. Right. But underneath all that, Elon's digging into the government financial books, and he's finding stuff that's disturbing. And we all knew he was gonna find stuff that disturb and he's just getting started.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. And I I don't think that it ultimately, whether it's Elon or whether it's somebody else, the same thing has to happen. Yeah. And I think Trump has set a precedent. And to your point, Brett, he's moving quickly, or I think, Norm, you said it. But he's he's moving quickly. Yeah. And I I I think he has to because it's like, having defended many, many white collar investigations where the FBI or IRS or the local cops show up at my client's office with a subpoena.
Steve Palmer [:If you tell them in advance, then the records won't be there.
Norm Murdock [:Right? Well, true. That's true.
Steve Palmer [:Now there's been enough of telegraphing now, so I'm sure people are scrambling.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:But Elon I heard somebody else talking about that. Elon knows where to look for this stuff. Yeah. It's not just the cursory crap. Like, if if you hired one government agent to look at another, yeah, man. We saw the books, and everything looked fine. They produced it, and we're we're good with it. But Elon's like, yeah.
Steve Palmer [:But hold on a second. Let me let me see the data. Right.
Brett Johnson [:The only entities that that would not work is you have army going looking into navy.
Steve Palmer [:That's sort of the story. You know what I mean?
Brett Johnson [:That ain't happening in those
Steve Palmer [:in those armed forces. And
Brett Johnson [:that's about it. And we
Steve Palmer [:got Pete Higgs that's saying, yeah. He's welcome to come in and check out the Pentagon. We don't care. And, you know
Norm Murdock [:Which has never passed an audit.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. And it never The DOD. Right. Never passed an audit. It just is this needs to happen.
Norm Murdock [:It does.
Steve Palmer [:I don't care if it's Elon. I don't care if it's John Doe. I don't care. I love that it's happening. I love it. Yeah. I love it because everybody who's listening to me on this show or any other show or talk to me over lunch or coffee or beer back when I used to drink, I always have said the same thing. I hate the administrative state of government.
Steve Palmer [:I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Yeah. I hate that we're governed by bureaucrats that have absolutely zero accountability. Now they have accountability and they're jumping off the ship and and throwing stones as fast as they can.
Norm Murdock [:And 75,000 of them have taken that early retirement package. I mean, that's a huge number of voluntary resignations.
Steve Palmer [:Yep. I love it. So look, unpopular as it may be, I love it.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. I I don't think it is unpopular. I think they want us to make it unpopular. But I think with the public, most of the public, if you tell I mean, I know lots of liberal people that would not be in favor of government waste. Of course. Why would, you know like, that makes no sense. They would just wanna spend it on different things than I would want to.
Brett Johnson [:Right. And then they also have to look at it as this and I think we brought this up before too is this waste was being spent under Trump as well. Yes. It wasn't just four years ago.
Norm Murdock [:Have a handle.
Steve Palmer [:Under Bush. Right. Under Bush too.
Brett Johnson [:Everybody's guilty of this.
Steve Palmer [:Under Trump. And now we're back to and and Biden, it it took off. I mean, now we're seeing things on and, I just saw some information released on Department of Education, and this USAID. I mean, this is crazy stuff. This is crazy.
Norm Murdock [:This is a swamp.
Steve Palmer [:This is insane.
Norm Murdock [:This is what we all talked about. This is the swamp.
Steve Palmer [:In a government that deals with trillions Yeah. I you know, it's it's not it's barely making a dent. But for me Yeah. You know, I hear millions wasted on whatever this is Whatever this on widgets in this part of the world. I'm like, what the is going on? You know?
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. USAID, which they're focusing on well, they did focus like last week and have have that whole list of crazy programs. That's only 50,000,000,000 that they get to spend a year. Their budget fit, which is not I think of Medicare. Yeah. I mean, think what's going on, like, in big programs.
Steve Palmer [:Billion. Yeah. Billion. Billion. Now now here's an issue. I always tell the story.
Norm Murdock [:You know, chump change.
Steve Palmer [:I've and it's not just that everybody is corrupt in the government. I'm not saying that. But here's what I am saying. I always tell the story to make the point.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:There was a time when my kids were little that we had a college girl that would come over and and spend some time with the kids when we're in the afternoons or whatever Yeah. When we were jammed up at work, probably in the childcare. Yeah. And the kids were a little older. I mean, it was, you know, whatever. They were in grade school or something. But, I remember we were preparing for a party one time, and we just asked her, hey. Look.
Steve Palmer [:Can you run over to Giant Eagle? We need, cheese, crackers, you know, probably the booze, whatever whatever. An errand. Run an errand like that. And I got the bill, and I thought, what the? What? Yeah. And I saw the receipt, and the the cheese was purchased at Giant Eagle in, like, the market district area.
Norm Murdock [:Sure. You got the boar's
Brett Johnson [:heads, didn't you?
Norm Murdock [:Right. That's right.
Steve Palmer [:It was the most expensive stuff. Of course. And Right. And why wouldn't she buy the most expensive stuff? It wasn't her money.
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:It wasn't her money. Now if it were her on her bottom line or her budget
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:And I'm not criticizing her for I'm only making the point that she was human. It's like, it's easy to spend somebody else's money. It's always easy to spend somebody else's money. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:Of course.
Steve Palmer [:And that's what these federal employees are doing with our money. They're spending it in a way and they don't give a rat's ass because it's not their money.
Norm Murdock [:No. No. One of the one of the handshaking things that, they found that the, Department of Treasury is just something as practical. And again, this is like, let's get Glenn, our our sponsor in here. He would love this. And Glenn could probably explain it better than I will now. But on the Department of Treasury checks for whether you're buying wrenches for the air force or you're buying syringes for doctors or whatever it is. When a treasury department check goes out, there is coding that should be, let's say, in the upper right hand corner about what department it's for and what exactly what the program is for.
Norm Murdock [:And there, you know, there's, you know, alphanumeric coding. And Musk's people are finding that tons of these, treasury checks have have gone out payable to, you know, x y z corporation with no indication about what it's for. That that smells
Brett Johnson [:like that smells like jail time coming for somebody. Dude. Honestly, because that's that's an easily embedded money.
Steve Palmer [:I understand the resistance to this. So Yeah. What's the old proverb that the evil man runs when nobody chases? I I don't remember the exactly it was. But, you know, the evil man flees when nobody gives chase or it's something like that. I should look it up. And and these people, like, I I I gotta tell you, it's like you they're they're casting stones at the person. I think that sounds a lot like a deflection.
Norm Murdock [:It does. Yeah. Right?
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. Because to your point, Brett, it's like, there's gotta be corruption underneath this. Not everybody. Some of it is my house or the, the childcare provider just spending money because she's like, yeah. They probably like the best stuff. I'll buy the best stuff. But, yeah, look. Here's here's another example.
Steve Palmer [:Brett, we're working in the studio here. We're we're gonna update some of the equipment, some of the cameras. I mean, this is a month long this is several months of a decision process for us, running our business and whether we should, allocate funds towards the towards the new equipment. And what does it get us? What does it not?
Norm Murdock [:But if
Steve Palmer [:we just had a pool of money coming in in January because it the it's been funded Yeah. I'd buy the best damn cameras I could buy. You know? What do I care? It's not my money.
Brett Johnson [:Because you had to spend it because the grant that you got or the whatever says, if you don't spend it, you lose it.
Steve Palmer [:You lose it next year. So, yeah, heck yeah. That that
Brett Johnson [:turned out to be your best stuff.
Steve Palmer [:Cameras. We're gonna buy the best lenses. We're gonna buy now if it's my money, which it is, I'm a little more frugal about it. I don't have I we get by with what we have until we don't until we can't. Right? And then you do we we operate at the speed of cash. Right. The government doesn't do that.
Norm Murdock [:And and what I can't what is also confusing to me, well, or it's revelatory, is that the media and some of the opponents of the reflexive, you know, opponents, you know, like, because Trump's doing it, I'm against it, rather than thinking it through, is why would people be against transparency? Why would they be against exposing what government does versus, you know, like, what the media used to be like? The media used to be in the business of exposing what government's doing. And now it's like the traditional media is complaining that there's somebody who wants to expose what government's spending. Yeah.
Brett Johnson [:And I I think It's all about And
Norm Murdock [:and it's like, is it just because these are Trump guys? Like, if Biden had more than that. If Biden had a team like Doge that was exposing government spending, I'd be in favor of it. Right. Like Yeah. Why would I reflexively be against it because Joe Biden is president? I wouldn't be. Because that would be an intelligent thing to do.
Brett Johnson [:And it seems like the programs that are getting the most looked at and most exposure that it's being on the chopping block are the again, going back to the DEI and, and just the the questionable programming that's going on, there's more than that that's being suggested to be cut. It's just that seems to get to the top.
Steve Palmer [:That seems to that that that seems to be a lot.
Brett Johnson [:More and then so it's an easy target. Makes it easy target.
Steve Palmer [:I was gonna say it it's the first target, and it's an easy target.
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:And it should be. Why? So let's let's at least talk this through.
Brett Johnson [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:You might be totally in favor of DEI. I am not. I respect that you are, whoever's listening. Alright? Fine. But let's say it's about fifty fifty in the country. And I think it's I think it's more against, but who knows? Maybe it's fifty fifty in the country. Does that mean that your version of what DEI should be should be crammed down and funded by the government that we all pay into? Right. And the answer is no.
Steve Palmer [:You know, we're not a pure democracy. I get it. But we didn't elect people, that went into Congress and passed a law to fund DEI. Alright. Congress has allocated that job to somebody that we don't even know in an organization that we've never even heard of. I think Elon was talking the other day. It's like we have hundred like, over a hundred departments of whatever in the federal government. I didn't even know USAID existed.
Steve Palmer [:You know, I know I know the Department of Education, of course. But it's now the spending and the funding and the and the allocation of money is happening. People are that you don't even know are doing it. And they're giving it to people you don't even know that are getting it. And it's money that you don't even know how much.
Norm Murdock [:Well, DEI, let's face it.
Steve Palmer [:And whether and and my point is is that it makes it even more important to ferret it out if half the country doesn't agree with it. Even if it's not half. I the same would be true if it's 10% or 20%.
Norm Murdock [:We have a we we this so
Steve Palmer [:We still have a right to know, but it's even worse when I it's almost like it's covered up because everybody knows that there's gonna be a huge objection to it.
Norm Murdock [:Well well well, substitute a different philosophy. So to me, DEI is a philosophy. It's something it's a package of ideas that some people believe in and other people think that, you know, you don't force that. But take another philosophy, Christianity.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. If we spent all that money buying Bibles Or or or teaching
Norm Murdock [:Christianity.
Steve Palmer [:People would be up and on.
Norm Murdock [:They wouldn't go apeshit. And and hang on just for a second. Most of the country is I would still say more than 50% of the country would identify itself, even if they don't go to church, as we're Christians. Okay? So the so this is where the majority should not be a tyranny on the minority, and neither should the minority be a tyranny on the majority.
Steve Palmer [:Correct.
Norm Murdock [:We all have beliefs. We should not, weaponize the government to teach some beliefs that are temporarily in favor by this White House versus another set of belief. Like, that is out that should be out there in the private sector, and we argue about it, and we, you know and but it should not be a government program to promote Christianity, DEI, or any other philosophy.
Brett Johnson [:Is it in the spirit of what, let's say specifically, USAID? Yeah. What is it in the spirit of what why that, like, organization was created?
Steve Palmer [:No. It was not.
Brett Johnson [:And and things morph over time. I totally get that. I get that.
Steve Palmer [:Right.
Brett Johnson [:But let's take a look at why this exists.
Norm Murdock [:It was a CIA front. Right. That's what USAID was.
Steve Palmer [:And I think there's a need for that on some level.
Norm Murdock [:Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Right. To deliver, you know, strategically, to deliver food or medicine or
Steve Palmer [:whatever. Ideas. That's different. Times. Right? But, you know, that's it's not lost to me. But it is it is clearly bloated out of control. I think that's what the point you're making here. And and here's the thing, Norm.
Steve Palmer [:We like, whether I think we all agree here that it's not that it's the message, because both messages on either side, we don't want the government cramming down with money that everybody doesn't know about.
Norm Murdock [:And Even though I'm Christian, I don't want my government to teach you.
Steve Palmer [:I would not want that. No. I would like it, but I wouldn't want it.
Norm Murdock [:No. On some reality. Against it? I would be against funding it.
Steve Palmer [:I I'm in favor of Christianity. I'm not in favor of the government funding it and pushing it actively.
Norm Murdock [:So the difference is the the ideas that are contained in our constitution and in our declaration of independence, like freedom, the right of free speech, the right of self determination, those aren't religious ideas. Those are ideas that are the foundation of our government. So if USAID wants to put on, you know, an education function, let's say, in a former communist country about how to set up a constitution and how to let people
Steve Palmer [:vote. Game.
Norm Murdock [:That's different. Those are ideas, but those are our government's and our country's ideas.
Steve Palmer [:And we there should be transparency They're
Norm Murdock [:not private ideas.
Steve Palmer [:There should there should also be transparency to the extent that it doesn't impact, I guess, some sort of national security interest. There needs to be transparency, on what they're doing. Yes. And and anything that is designed and and I I immediately am suspect of the first qualification I gave, national security. Because most of the time, this stuff's not gonna fall under national security, but it'll be used as an excuse not to tell us what's going on. Yeah. So, like, we need to know. We, the people, need to know.
Steve Palmer [:We're not like other countries. We never have been like other countries. Don't use other countries to compare us. We, the people, deserve to know. We have a right to know. And then all you gotta do is flip the monopoly game upside down. It gives us a little rule. Again, we have a list of rules, and that you've already brought it up.
Steve Palmer [:Norm is the constitution. So So we can't fund things that are against the constitution.
Norm Murdock [:So I think we ought to get to this constitutional crisis, but I wanna do that right after the other big Ohio thing.
Steve Palmer [:Okay.
Norm Murdock [:Okay. So the other big Ohio thing is this week, and we'll see how this all plays out. But there is we had a guest on the show, Steven, and and Brett and I interviewed her named, Eileen Dierolf.
Steve Palmer [:Mhmm.
Norm Murdock [:And Eileen came in talking about a Chinese, communist Chinese company set up in Pataskala right next to her farm, her and her husband's farm, and about how that was shepherded to Ohio just like, Intel and this Anduril drone company. There is this entity in Ohio called JobsOhio. And I have to tell you, when Eileen described how JobsOhio is funded and how it was set up, I looked at her. She was right here. I looked at her and I said, that can't be. She she she she must have some facts wrong. But in fact, back in 2013, Ohio created a private corporation called JobsOhio. They gave them as a twenty five year franchise to run and take the proceeds from, and I I mean, this will blow your mind, of the Ohio Department of Liquor Control.
Norm Murdock [:They run the liquor program for the state of Ohio, and they inure all the benefits of the taxes and the profits from selling liquor in the state of Ohio. That's how they're funded.
Steve Palmer [:I I don't even understand this. Dude. Yeah. So this makes no sense to me.
Norm Murdock [:They are if they so their contract goes to 2038. K. They are before the controlling board this week, maybe today, and Dave Yost has asked for an extension, to to further vet this. They want so they're not we're not even the 2038 when their twenty five year contract expires. They are asking for a fifteen year extension now in the middle of their twenty five years.
Brett Johnson [:Well, you know why. Because Dwayne and Tressel love JobsOhio.
Norm Murdock [:Well
Brett Johnson [:This is a good time to be doing it too.
Steve Palmer [:Hold on.
Brett Johnson [:Maybe. Maybe.
Norm Murdock [:So so hold on. Let me give you a little history. This is unbelievable. So Dave Yost, who's our AG
Brett Johnson [:Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:Used to be the state of Ohio's auditor. Right. The amount of money that they get from selling booze in Ohio after they get the profit is roughly a hundred million dollars. So roughly big you know, that that's a fuzzy number because it changes every year. But back when he was state auditor, he took JobsOhio to the to the Ohio Supreme Court because as auditor, he felt since it's taxpayer dollars Mhmm. Being derived from OD our department liquor control. Being derived from that program and going to this private company, his contention as auditor is, those are taxpayer dollars. I should have the right to audit them.
Norm Murdock [:Mhmm. The Ohio Supreme Court sided with JobsOhio and said, they're a private entity. You have no right to audit them. So they are not audited to this day, number one. Wow. Number two, since they have been in business, it is said that they have $2,300,000,000 of either equity or dollars on hand. We don't know what they've spent their money on because they're not audited, and they're not a public corporation. They're a private corporation like the Fed, like how congress created the Fed.
Norm Murdock [:Their board is is five people. Their budget for the board is $2,000,000. And Yost is saying right now, as candidate for governor in AG, so he lost a case before the Supreme Court, but he is saying right now that the controlling board should not approve this fifteen year thing. And in fact, he is still pressing for an audit. But if if they do give them an extension, what I would do as a controlling board, I would say only on condition that you get audited. Right. Because that's this is outrageous.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. I mean, this is it's not unlike look. This is it's not unlike everything we're talking about. Right? We've we've got this sort of secret There
Norm Murdock [:needs to be a doge.
Steve Palmer [:There needs to be For
Norm Murdock [:Ohio. Yeah. It needs
Steve Palmer [:to be look. This is these are our dollars. These are our dollars. Hundred percent. And they're being spent, and we deserve and have a right to understand where they're being spent. And it doesn't mean that we could stop it. If just because I disagree, that doesn't mean I get to have a say so that says it stops. But it actually, I do have a say so.
Steve Palmer [:It doesn't mean I get control over whether it stops. But my say so happens at the ballot box.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. And I so how does I guess the question comes down to so JobsOhio comes up once a fifteen year extension. Don't you have to prove that you're using the money I mean, the One
Steve Palmer [:would think.
Norm Murdock [:The proof
Brett Johnson [:in putting is gonna be okay. This is how many jobs and companies we drew to Ohio. Yeah. Okay. Granted, good job, bad job, whatever the case might be.
Norm Murdock [:That's gonna be one. You sound like Dave Yost. So what he says is
Brett Johnson [:So what what what about all this other stuff that we're spending?
Norm Murdock [:Well, his audit Yeah. Would not only be, you know, just a proper accountancy audit like Glenn Harper would do. Right. Right? It would also be your question. Let's demo okay. This is how much money you've spent since 2013. You've brought in, let's say, Intel and this Chinese solar panel company and this windshield company.
Brett Johnson [:And the battery thing. And the And the the 71
Norm Murdock [:And the tech farmers that, you know, that your thing and etcetera, etcetera. So let's total up the number of jobs that you can provably say you brought to Ohio Right. Versus the money spent. So money per one job.
Steve Palmer [:And you gotta go to the next step. So this is double entry accounting. So where what are the what are the internal categories of expenses? Yeah. Because what I really mean is how are who's getting paid what? Exactly. 2,000,000 for a five man board. Do the math.
Brett Johnson [:That's a lot of money.
Steve Palmer [:That's a lot of money.
Norm Murdock [:So hundred million per year in profits from liquor control.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. So but 2 but the the board And where is that going? The there's 2,000,000 yearly allocated to pay the board members. Is that what we think?
Norm Murdock [:That's right. Yeah. So $400, you know, free Just on a board. I mean, that's
Steve Palmer [:I mean
Brett Johnson [:Again, how much is it that it's too much?
Steve Palmer [:If this is a board, I
Brett Johnson [:don't know. But let's I'll take that job. Is that person worth $400,000?
Steve Palmer [:Probably not. And and look, I'll take that job.
Norm Murdock [:And the guy running against Yoast. Right? Vivek? Yeah. He's one of the cofounders of Doge. And I wonder if he's gonna campaign when he starts.
Steve Palmer [:I'm not
Brett Johnson [:gonna say it.
Norm Murdock [:Like, Ohio needs a Doge.
Steve Palmer [:Well, it just dawned on me when I kept saying I'll take that job. I wanna know how those board members are selected because that's a huge huge influx of money to that to that individual board member. I mean, so look. Right. Is it are are we all comfortable saying that we can be certain that there is no connection between the board members and whoever's got the purse strings of the government? Right.
Norm Murdock [:So like
Brett Johnson [:And can
Steve Palmer [:we all comfortably say that that's probably the case? No.
Norm Murdock [:So I looked up their current board and I'm not picking on this guy. And he's probably done nothing wrong.
Steve Palmer [:I can't look. At all. It's human nature.
Norm Murdock [:Exactly. But but, you know, where Intel is in Licking County. Right? And the the guy in charge of the, Licking County Port Authority is one of the five members of the board.
Brett Johnson [:Well, that's an odd that's a one out of 88 chance. Right?
Norm Murdock [:And you're like, wow.
Brett Johnson [:What are the odds?
Steve Palmer [:What are the odds? Right? So look.
Norm Murdock [:You know? Yeah. And, again, I'm not saying he's done anything wrong. But But without an audit, how do we I
Steve Palmer [:don't know. I didn't Did he recreates himself from it? Right? Catch the job posting on Indeed when they were looking for board members. Right. Right? I didn't catch that one. Because I might have put in my application. Look. I've been a practicing lawyer for thirty years. Sure.
Steve Palmer [:I've got a pretty good tentacles out throughout the state of Ohio. I know a lot of people. I've worked with a lot of prosecutors, local politicians. I've worked with a lot of people at the ground. Yeah. I'm I'm somewhat, I mean, objectively reasonable. Right. I I'll send you my resume Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:Because I could use another $400 next year.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. Dude. So, anyway, I just wanted to so our friend, Eileen, who came in here talking about this factory, she just she just poked open a big huge sore that I was completely like, I doubted what she said.
Steve Palmer [:That's crazy. Yeah. And that's just one thing.
Norm Murdock [:It's just one thing.
Steve Palmer [:Let's shift to the next segment. We've got to Injustice for All. And Injustice for All, I'm just gonna hijack it because Injustice for All
Norm Murdock [:High Jack it, man.
Steve Palmer [:The thing that I keep hearing time and time again, and it's sort of the latest trope of the media is constitutional crisis. And and again, those those who don't know, I do another podcast called Lawyer Talk. You can find it at Lawyer Talk LawyerTalkPodcast.com. It's on YouTube. It's everywhere. But I did a breakdown of this.
Norm Murdock [:Shows a direct spin off.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. We spun it. Yeah. Spin. So anyway Yeah. I I don't think there's a constitutional crisis. I think everybody this is alarmist. This is a, a red herring type of argument.
Steve Palmer [:I just wanna explain a little bit about how this works and why this is probably a great thing for our country right now on both sides. So what happens is this, Trump, through the executive branch of government, creates Doge, and then maybe even outside Doge, Trump sits or all the administrative form branches of government sit under the executive. That's how it was created, incidentally, by the left created it. You know, the Democrats created it years and years and years ago. So now Trump is basically exercising his authority in a way that people don't like. He's firing, getting rid of, auditing, basically questioning the administrative state of government. And hopefully, if I have it my way, dismantles it at least down to its fundamental essentials. Now the other side doesn't like any of this.
Steve Palmer [:They're saying you can't do this. You can't fire our workers. It's a violation of our union contract or whatever it be. So they sue Donald Trump or they sue the federal government and say, you can't do it. And now they go to court in a district court, and they happen to pick a friendly one. And because look. Judges are judges, but they're they still have their bents and federal judges are lifetime appointments.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. Rhode Island.
Steve Palmer [:Rhode Island. So they pick a friendly one who's gonna say, yeah. We're gonna enjoin. In other words, I'm gonna issue a temporary restraining order precluding you, federal government, from implementing this action. And in this case, that would be Trump. Alright. So everybody says it's a constitutional crisis because Trump has said, well, look, I'm not gonna follow this mandate. And they didn't really say it that way, but some of the clips made it look that way.
Steve Palmer [:But most recently, Trump said, look. I don't agree with this. I think these judges are biased. They're appointed by my the other side anyway. We're gonna appeal. And so what happens is Trump may government action take it out of this for a second. Government action, citizen or entity challenges government action, goes to court, judge says, yeah. I'm gonna balance a bunch of factors here, one of which is gonna be your likelihood of success on the merits.
Steve Palmer [:The other, sort of, from the outset, is gonna be, do you even have standing to challenges? In other words, are you directly impacted so you have a reason to come to court? I can't come to court for you, Norm. You have to do it for yourself. Mhmm. You have to be impacted. Another would be, is there irreparable harm that's gonna happen? And then there's a host of other factors that are considered. I've gone through them before. And the judge says, yes. I think all these things weigh in favor.
Steve Palmer [:I'm gonna at least temporarily restrain the government from enforcing this action. Trump is now gonna come in or the plaintiff or the defendant in the lawsuit that we've created is gonna come in and say, uh-uh. We're gonna appeal, and we're gonna go to one of the courts of appeals in the federal circuit system. And there's 11 circuits in federal court. And we're gonna have say in Ohio, it would be the sixth circuit. We're gonna have the sixth circuit take a peek at this, and that panel of judges can decide whether the trial court's decision to enjoin this action was good enough or was correct. If that court doesn't agree, then they send it back and say, sorry, Charlie. You can't do that.
Steve Palmer [:We disagree. We're gonna reverse you. The lawsuit can continue, but the temporary restraining order is not gonna stay intact. If the other side doesn't like that, Norm, you don't like that, you're gonna appeal that to the US Supreme Court. Right. And they're gonna say yay or nay on it, and it's gonna come back. Amy Coney Barrett was recently a swing vote on one that went the other way. Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:I forget what it was. But it you know? She was. It was, this stuff happens. This is not a constitutional crisis. And and look, I guess, ultimately, I think Jackson was a guy who famously just said, I'm gonna defy the US Supreme Court. You can't do it. Right. You you got you don't have an army.
Steve Palmer [:But, you know, look. The nobody's saying that the process isn't gonna be followed. It is getting followed. And I think most recently, the Court of Appeals said, look. These folks bringing the action don't have standing, so we're gonna send it back. Yeah. And it it'll matriculate up. Now here's why it's a good thing.
Steve Palmer [:It's a good thing, one, because everybody's getting an education on the system and how it works. Right? This this is stuff that I didn't know about until I had to swim in it. You know, I'm no smarter than anybody else, but I didn't I it was we just didn't understand it. Not that the the restraining order doesn't mean you win the lawsuit, it just means that it's it's held in the bands for a while. Secondly, we are gonna get a test out of the or and an answer, ultimately, from the United States Supreme Court on what the fundamental power of the president president executive former branch of government is over these administrative agencies, what the president can do, what the president can't do. And this is heretofore largely unaddressed. Yeah. I I'm not aware of any direct Supreme Court case that really talks about this.
Steve Palmer [:The closest we ever got, I think, there's more constitutional far more capable constitutional scholars than I. But if you dial back the clock, this isn't new. This happened, in 1780 I I forget. Seventeen eighty Marbury. '9. Marbury versus Madison. Yeah. So what you had was this historical unique set of circumstances came into play.
Steve Palmer [:You had Adams, and then you had Jefferson, who was a Democratic Republican. Adams was a I forget his party. But Adams and and Jefferson were polar opposites, a lot like it is today. Yeah. Under Adams, he passed congress passed something called the Sedition Act. Had a bunch of people arrested and charged with crimes and whatever, probably unconstitutional. Yeah. Jefferson comes in, pardons them all.
Steve Palmer [:Right? Does that sound familiar? Right? Sounds really familiar.
Norm Murdock [:Right.
Steve Palmer [:And then I I won't go into details about it, but The US Supreme Court under John Marshall basically comes up with this genius decision on the midnight judges. It's different than the sedition thing. But they came up with this genius decision, says, now we, the court, have the power to review acts of Congress and determine whether or not they pass the constitutional test. We're the ones that get to flip over the Monopoly board and say, we're mom.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:You know, he put a hotel there and he doesn't have a house. He can't do that. So now we're mom. We get to say, mom, he's not allowed to do that. Well, let me see the rule book. Take a look. And next thing you know, he's right. You know? You can't do that.
Steve Palmer [:Yeah. And then everybody throws them bored down.
Norm Murdock [:Right? And recent decisions, even Roberts, the the the chief justice, Steve, and you probably even know the case or know of the trend.
Steve Palmer [:He has swung in different directions.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. He has even limited the scope of the Supreme Court's power because we have this thing called separation of powers where the Congress, the president, and the Supreme Court are said to be under our constitution to be equal branches Right. Of equal stature and power and influence. And Roberts has said in a few cases, I believe, that, oh, well, we, the Supreme Court, are not gonna rule on this because it's beyond our purview. Yeah. Like, we don't settle that fight. You go back in congress and debate it and pass a law if you want. But but we're not gonna make up a law for
Steve Palmer [:it.
Norm Murdock [:As a
Steve Palmer [:as a lawyer, I look at that. He I think he's sort of weak kneed at times. He he he tends to do that when there's a controversial decision on the table. Yeah. He that that we call that in law, quote, judicial restraint. He tends to expand the doctrine of judicial restraint when he perceives conflict. Yeah. Fair enough.
Steve Palmer [:He was appointed. It's a job. He But
Norm Murdock [:it's interesting that he limits his own power.
Steve Palmer [:He does. Right? Yeah. So this is what's going on. It's not a horrible constitutional crisis. This will work out. We have endured far worse crises. And Alan Dershowitz gave I I heard him talking about this one point. He said there's been one constitutional crisis in our history, and it was a civil war.
Steve Palmer [:Right? Yeah. Really? And that was a huge constitutional crisis. Right. Short of that, this is just a little blip on the radar. This isn't even as big a deal as Madison versus or Marbury versus Madison, I don't think.
Norm Murdock [:We're gonna find out. I think so the biggest thing between what Reagan tried with the Grace Commission is Reagan gave the Grace Commission a couple of years and they came back with, like, a six inch thick book. And by that point, you're gonna have congress, like, decide, yes, no, we're gonna we're gonna pass that book. Well, of course, they're not. So so I think Trump has decided to fast track these items bit by bit. Like, have Doge make a suggestion, he reviews whether he likes that or not.
Steve Palmer [:And does it.
Norm Murdock [:And then does it. And then it's incremental. It's not one big thing all or nothing.
Steve Palmer [:More than that, if you're in favor of what Trump's doing. More than that, Brett, we we talked about this earlier, is that the speed at which he's doing it. Yes. Because the he's acting so quickly that the other side can't keep up. Yeah. Yeah. They can't keep up. And you may like that.
Steve Palmer [:You may not like that. But, look, Trump is in beast mode right now.
Norm Murdock [:Yes. He is.
Steve Palmer [:I mean, he's just plowing through this stuff.
Brett Johnson [:Also recognizes what the hurdles will be too. He knows. He knows.
Steve Palmer [:He's gotta
Brett Johnson [:push a bunch of stuff through because what he really wants to get done probably won't see the light today for two years possibly.
Norm Murdock [:It'll go it'll go to the Supreme Court. Yeah. And then we'll find out where the guardrails are.
Steve Palmer [:It's not unlike when FDR created the New Deal. Yes. And, you know, you just get pass and pass and pass and challenge challenge challenge challenge. And then eventually, a stitch in time save nine.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. A couple of those agencies he established were found to be unconstitutional.
Steve Palmer [:All of them.
Norm Murdock [:And he started different ones.
Steve Palmer [:All of them Yeah. React until he threatened to pack the court. Yeah. And then it went so far. Ohio makes a big again, a case called Wickard versus Filburn, where there was a farmer in Ohio, a wheat farmer, I believe, says, I you know, you can't regulate my price of wheat because the federal go I don't sell anything in interstate commerce. I just supply my own horses. I supply my own food to or my table at my house. Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:I don't sell anything in the market. And the Supreme Court says, nope. Commerce clause, we can you can regulate that. Roosevelt can do it. Because if you're not selling your product in the market, then that means you're not buying product in the market because you're making yourself. And that's gonna impact the price of the market. So, therefore, you and you impact interstate commerce. That was sort of the outside Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:That's clever. Of the of the power of the US government. Anyway, let's shift gears here. We'll talk about some wonderfully outrageous things.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. It
Brett Johnson [:Go ahead. Yeah.
Norm Murdock [:Go ahead. Hit it now. So my outrageous thing is this statement. So in the Financial Times, which is a magazine, I believe British, Alex Soros who's taken over for his dad George of the
Steve Palmer [:Great. There's more.
Norm Murdock [:Of the Open Society. Right? He actually said this, and this is just an unbelievable quote that the reporter got him to admit. He said that he, Alex Soros, before him, his dad George, are are are more powerful. He personally is more powerful than many nations. Like, there are several nations who have elected heads of state Yeah. Or their monarchies or whatever they are, and he's saying, I am actually more powerful than those people. And he's just a private guy running an institute, and he's actually saying he can steer the world more than elected officials of nations. I mean, which is that's crazy.
Norm Murdock [:That's an that's our
Steve Palmer [:may do it and immediately recognize that as danger Will Robins. I I don't know.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. But this was the organization Steve lovingly refers to as SMERSH. SMERSH. The w e f.
Steve Palmer [:No. Not SMERSH. That's, they're Spectre.
Norm Murdock [:Thank you. Yeah. It was one of the evil organizations.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Yeah. So outrageous, I noticed in DeWine suggested budget, he's looking to award $5,000 scholarships to the top 5% of students in school districts. College.
Norm Murdock [:To go to college.
Brett Johnson [:Yes. Scholars cut seniors. Seniors in high school.
Steve Palmer [:I did that.
Brett Johnson [:Top 5% of every school district Wow. Gets a $5,000 scholarship. You go to Ohio in Ohio University. Who's paying it? Well, we are. We are. I've got
Steve Palmer [:to say that rhetorically.
Brett Johnson [:So I'm not against scholarships per se, but I hopefully there's some more devil in the details because I'm, first of all, the top 5% probably don't need the money. In most school districts. Okay. And I'm not I'm not necessarily against giving scholarships to students. I think there needs to be some, you owe us some something back.
Norm Murdock [:Like maybe Intel could fund that.
Brett Johnson [:Yeah. Or well That's how scholarships happen. Yeah. The student itself, you know, I don't again, I don't know what the details are, but to me, if if Duane's listening, they need to be their attendance needs to be a % when they go to class. If they're gonna get the $5 from us, they're gonna do that. They're gonna
Steve Palmer [:do some They're gonna owe some public service
Brett Johnson [:after that. Exam exactly. So University of Cincinnati has what's called a Cincinnati Cincinnatus scholarship.
Steve Palmer [:So it's just
Brett Johnson [:Up to up to $1,500 for a scholarship, but you do thirty hours of community work for it.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. Pick up trash along the highway or something.
Brett Johnson [:Whatever it is.
Norm Murdock [:Whatever it is.
Steve Palmer [:I'm not in favor of any of this.
Brett Johnson [:I'm not either. I'm not either. But if it's going to go through, let's put some
Steve Palmer [:I agree. Well, well, something on it. At least try to make
Brett Johnson [:more power. Here's the five. That's great.
Norm Murdock [:But it's more You
Brett Johnson [:need to you owe us something for
Norm Murdock [:that. Your initial reaction, it's more Mike DeWine plays Santa Claus with our money.
Brett Johnson [:With our money. Yeah. Just give them and and know and, again, no, follow through to go, okay, kid. What did you do with your $5 with
Norm Murdock [:us? Crazy.
Brett Johnson [:For us. You know? Anyway.
Steve Palmer [:I've got two outrageous today. One is the pope. Norm, I you know, look, guys. What did he do now?
Brett Johnson [:I love your Catholic faith. I love the tradition of the pope.
Norm Murdock [:I love the pope. He's out of control.
Steve Palmer [:But he says that, he's he's just literally coming out of his cage at Trump for immigration policy saying, basically, it's gonna end badly, and you shouldn't be doing this and yada yada yada. All the while, he's hiding behind the Vatican walls.
Norm Murdock [:Which, well, I'll know.
Steve Palmer [:I'd like a ticket in, by the way. Can he get there? Yeah. No.
Norm Murdock [:What's their policy
Steve Palmer [:And while he shut his mouth about things like abortion and transing kids and all the other stuff that you would traditionally sort of think the Catholics would have a voice about. Right. So
Norm Murdock [:He's concerned about polar bears. Right. He's not concerned about the other like It's like people, dude. You're You're the pope of people. The gospel. Not polar bears.
Steve Palmer [:Right. The good news. The gospel. Just read it and and apply it. So look. Who am I I'm
Norm Murdock [:with you. Who am I to
Steve Palmer [:question the pope, but I'm questioning the pope? Find that outrageous. I find it equally sort of I'll call this more of a, hypocritically outrageous Yeah. Where the same people who say there's a constitutional crisis for Trump threatening not to follow the rule of law in a judicial decision, they tended to be a little quiet when Biden did the same thing with,
Norm Murdock [:Student loans.
Steve Palmer [:With student loans. Yeah. So look. You're right. I don't like either.
Brett Johnson [:You're right.
Steve Palmer [:But at least be consistent, folks. Yeah. You know, because this exposes your bias.
Norm Murdock [:Yep. Biden actually gave the finger, and he gave a speech where he said, I gave the finger to the Supreme Court. Yes. I figured out a way.
Steve Palmer [:Same time you got, the rest of people in congress saying we're gonna fight the US Supreme Court. We're gonna pack it. We don't agree with them. We're not gonna file it. Blah blah blah. The court's corrupt. Yeah. Look.
Steve Palmer [:You you can't have it both ways, folks. It is what it is. The rule of law is the rule of law.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. And the best example of that was, George Bush the second who assigned his DOJ, to enforce, Roe v Wade.
Steve Palmer [:Mhmm.
Norm Murdock [:And he said, I'm against abortion, but it is the law of the land. So my DOJ will fight state laws that are trying to to overturn Roe v Wade.
Steve Palmer [:It's federal constitutional law.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. So he did the proper intellectual thing even if he disagreed with it. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so my wonderful thing is these cases that, Pam Bondi, our new attorney general at the federal level, US attorney general has filed against Chicago and New York City over their, blocking of ICE enforcement and their misspending of, of money that, like, has gone from, say, FEMA, to New York City.
Norm Murdock [:They sent $59,000,000, in in one tranche of it supposedly to pay hotel bills. And the and the auditing what DOGE is finding out is of the 59,000,000 to pay hotel bills, only 19 paid hotel bills. The other 30,000,000 or no, 40,000,000 has gone to things like security. Mhmm. Wonder who I Look how Steve's ears are going like, you know. Hey, Guido. Get down there and watch that apartment building. You know? And yo, here's a couple
Steve Palmer [:of the security companies.
Brett Johnson [:Know that. Yeah. Tom on. Yeah. I think it's wonderful that we're seeing a lot more people, take a look at buying chickens because eggs are so expensive.
Steve Palmer [:I love it, man.
Brett Johnson [:But but I but I
Norm Murdock [:Oh, and and having their own eggs? Is that what
Brett Johnson [:you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. But there's caution with this, folks.
Steve Palmer [:Which came first? The price of eggs or the people
Norm Murdock [:getting chosen? The cheaper. So really
Brett Johnson [:watch your pennies on this one because more than likely, by the time you buy the chickens and the feed in the chicken house and such, Yeah. Your eggs are probably $10 a day. Yeah. It feels better. Right? But but but go into it. To me, go into it knowing how your food is being developed.
Steve Palmer [:They're the best eggs you're gonna get.
Brett Johnson [:Exactly. And to me, that's great. That's right. Because it's it's a healthier egg. Go for it with that. Don't do it because
Steve Palmer [:the price
Norm Murdock [:that in World War two? Victory guard.
Brett Johnson [:Victory guard. Go for it because then, you know, it's it's from, farm to table kind of stuff. But do it because it's healthier Yeah. Than the price because you're gonna be paying more than $10 a dozen for
Steve Palmer [:eggs. Yeah. What I think is wonderful, guys, is what's going on. We we are digging into government agencies finally exposing whatever there is to expose, good, bad, or ugly, and we get to see it. I don't care what they find. I just wanna know what's there. So expose it. Yeah.
Steve Palmer [:I don't care if it's Elon. I don't care if it's John Doe. I don't hell, I'll go do it. And by the way, I still want that job for $400, and then I'll really I'll donate all my time to DOSH.
Norm Murdock [:So, Steve, there's things you and I and Brett would all agree on. We all want a healthy national defense. We wanna be protected. But we're not in favor of $800 toilets. Correct.
Steve Palmer [:This is a $500 hammer.
Norm Murdock [:Yeah. So so it's efficiency. It's not even a full philosophical difference in many of these cases. It's waste.
Steve Palmer [:Yep. And and start get me a red pen and a list of administrations in the federal government, and I'll take care of it for $400,000 a year. Alright. So with that, we're gonna wrap it up. CommonSenseOhioShow.com, brought to you by Harper Plus accounting. I'm gonna wrap it up fast because we have pushed our time limit today. But, if you got questions, if you got thoughts, share them, please, on the socials or at commonsenseohioshow.com. We are coming at you right from the middle each and every week.
